A Baby Boomer looks at health, finance, retirement, grown-up children and ... how time flies.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Are You a Library Junkie?

April 8 - 14 is National Library week, and I'm volunteering to help out at our local library book sale, which will take place on Saturday, April 14. So far we've collected -- oh, I don't know, probably 4,000 - 5,000 books that have been donated for the sale -- hard cover and paperback fiction; history and biography; piles of children's books and stacks of young adult books. We have multiple copies of the Harry Potter books, and Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. We have boxes of Patricia Cornwell books and Michael Connelly mysteries and David Baldacci thrillers.

You can get anything you want at the local library book sale: $2 for a hardcover; $1 for a paperback. I'm officially the co-chair this year. But we have, probably, 20 volunteers helping us out. All of them are women of a certain age (except me, I'm a man of a certain age) -- although we did get some Cub Scouts in one day to help us carry boxes of donated books from the driveway into the activity room where the sale will take place.

I feel that it's a worthy cause. We hope to raise around $3,000 for the library, which will be used for special programs and activities throughout the year.

We might invest a portion of the money in some new equipment -- but not books. There's money in the official library budget for buying books. But because of the cuts in the town budget, which in turn have squeezed the library budget, we don't have money for any "extras."

So I've been spending 4 - 6 hours a day for the last several days hauling books around, unpacking boxes, organizing displays and directing other volunteers. I'm exhausted (and still have four more days to go!). As I've said to B several times over the last week, I've forgotten how tiring it is to work every day, and I have raised my level of respect for her for holding down a full-time job.

One benefit of volunteering for the book sale, however, is that I get first dibs on the books coming in. So far I've grabbed a copy of Correctionsby Jonathan Franzen (I read Freedom last year and liked it, but never read the earlier book). I grabbed a Michael Crichton that I hadn't read (I've read most of them), and a book by Larry McMurtry called Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond. Over the years I've read a few books by Larry McMurty (including the Last Picture Show Trilogy comprising The Last Picture Show, Texasville, and Duane's Depressed), and I've liked them -- but I hadn't heard of this one. (You'll probably see a Larry McMurtry quote up at the top of my blog before too long.)

I also picked up a book called The Forgotten Art of Building a Stone Wall, because I have a notion that one of these days I'm going to try to repair the stone wall that's collapsing into the back of our driveway. But not anytime soon -- my back is already acting up from moving all those books.

Anyway, please join me in celebrating National Library week. Libraries are one of our national treasures, offering education, entertainment and new opportunities to Americans of all ages, all races and all socio-economic levels. And all for free. So go to your library, take out a book ... and enjoy yourself!

P. S. I know there are some fellow Doc Martin fans out there, so f.y.i., the new season (at least where I am in the New York area) is premiering tonight on PBS. We'll see what new trouble Doc Martin can get himself into this year!

Our small town library holds a book sale as well. I sort donated books all year long and volunteer there at least once a week when we are in VT. Venice, FL libraries are filled with volunteers (high number of retirees live there). I use the libraries on a regular basis--all kinds of wonderful things go on there.

Good for you! I am, of course, to lazy to volunteer for anything but I always encourage others to do so. Especially for the local libraries. Ours is actually very good and I keep telling myself I will go down there and volunteer if I can arrange to get hours that do not interfere with my golf addiction. I am shamed by my selfishness but not enough to give up any golf.

About Me

I’m a Baby Boomer, part of the pig-in-a-python demographic group that has brought so many changes to America – and will continue to do so until we cash our last Social Security check. I had a typical baby boomer career. I attended college, went to business school, worked for several companies, then in my mid-50s was laid off. Meanwhile, I got divorced, and my two kids left for college. Now I live with my significant other, B, who has two children of her own. We live in the New York area, a convenient stopover for our four peripatetic 20-somethings. And I produce this blog Sightings Over Sixty which covers health, finance, retirement – concerns of people who realize that somehow they have grown up.